ANNE MUGISHA FOR NAKAWA CONSTITUENCY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


Contact: Anne Mugisha,                            Party: Forum for Democratic Change

Telephone Number: 0791-770055           Email Address: anne@fdcuganda.org 

Web site address: www.fdcuganda.org

ANNE MUGISHA FOR NAKAWA CONSTITUENCY

Naguru, Kampala, July 28, 2010 — Today I have chosen to announce my decision to contest for the seat of Member of Parliament, Nakawa Constituency in order to give the people of Nakawa a real choice during the 2011 elections and to give its residents a real voice in national politics.

I have chosen to make the announcement in Naguru because this community embodies the challenges that are faced by constituents of Nakawa Constituency and greater Kampala. The community is dealing with the challenges of a rapidly expanding urban center that creates both opportunities and difficulties for those living in or close to a metropolitan area.

Some of these challenges are known to the public because of the controversy that they have stirred. Residents of the Naguru – Nakawa Estates are living under fear of eviction from their homes. The Estates are home to public servants who have lived for two generations and some refugees who fled two decades of war in the northern and eastern parts of the country. They are now being told to cede their rights to a foreign investor without specific assurances of continuity of their residence, temporary relocation or full compensation. The people living in the Estates have a proposal to redevelop their Estate into a modern residential facility but it has been rejected in favor of a foreign investor and they want to know why, especially since residents of Bugolobi flats, Bukoto flats in Nakawa as well as other areas like Kololo and Nakasero were given right of first refusal when these properties were privatized

About a year ago Naguru Health Center a public facility that provided maternal health care and HIV/AIDS counseling among other things to residents was demolished. The Clinic provided services for people who came from as far as Mukono, Bweyogerere, Kireka and Ntinda and today the services have been transferred to clinic that serves patients under a tent in Kiswa. Women are giving birth by the roadside on their way to Mulago and in they have shared information that their former Health Center is now being developed for private use.

Last night we received news that the National Environment Management Authority is planning to evict commercial and residential developments in the wetlands down the road between Naguru and Ntinda. The opportunities of an expanding city must be balanced with the aesthetic beauty of its green areas but more importantly city developers must preserve the benefits of wetlands which include slowing floodwaters, protect uplands from erosion, increasing water quality, providing a setting for recreation and study, support a diversity of wildlife across the landscape, moderate local climate, recharging groundwater and producing products used by humans like fish.

The public schools that serve the people of this area like Nakawa Katale, St. Jude, Kalinabiri, Kiswa and Kyambogo are the same schools that served students of my generation. In the meantime the population has increased and increased class sizes without a corresponding increase in public schools.

Now, this area is currently represented by a Deputy Attorney General and am sure he has tried his best in the last 10 years to address these problems but residents of Nakawa believe that he has not used his clout in Cabinet to bring positive change to Nakawa and to address their problems. That is why I say I am offering the people a real choice and a determined voice to make sure that their issues are addressed in the most partial way.

I will begin visiting the 23 parishes of Nakawa next month to ensure that I fully understand their concerns and that I listen to their own proposals for solutions of their issues as constituents and as citizens of Uganda. This is a very cosmopolitan area where you will find every Ugandan nationality or tribe residing and I have a strong affiliation to Nakawa which was my first home in Kampala District 38 years ago. I have been away for 9 years and I realize that I have to concentrate on reacquainting myself with the communities and people of Nakawa. I believe that my experiences living abroad in cosmopolitan/metropolitan cities will be very useful to the people of Nakawa. I know that my experience in Ugandan national politics over the last 10 years will certainly be beneficial in providing a loud voice for the people of Nakawa. I am a very determined individual who does not give up on a path that I have chosen.

I have been well prepared for this task and I will end by quoting a Bible verse that explains where I am today in my journey of political growth:

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[a] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.